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Description
Stuart Little, in Finding Margalo, crying on his bed. Snowbell wants his longtime girlfriend, Menika Angora, to move in so that they can finally start a family. However, 13 years earlier, Menika killed Margalo's mother, and Margalo has stated that if Menika moves in, she will move out and won't come back. He's in love with Margalo, and has plans for the future with her. On the other paw, he's good friends with, and sort of family, of, Snowbell, but, alas, he can't please them both.

December 25, 2001:

One fateful Christmas Day, as the young Margalo and her mother were going about their day as normal, two predators lurked near the barn. Both had been stealthily watching the mother bird and figured that, if the mother kept coming back there repeatedly, that there had to be a nest there. One of them was a female Angora cat. The other was a male peregrine falcon. Both of them knew that the mother would be the harder to catch, being the better flier. Still, they both knew that the mother would be desperate to save her children, rather than saving herself, and thus could be easily defeated. The two assumed that after they got her, that the children would be a cinch.

The two birds, unaware of their peril, set about decorating a Christmas tree, a small pine tree that grew in the barn. They didn't have ornaments so had put pine sliced pine cones, which holes poked through the middle with the talons, and straw used to string these pinecone ornaments onto the tree. Margalo's mother put her jeweled pin on the top of the tree as a sort of star.

Outside the barn, both the Angora cat and the falcon moved in for the kill. Had the two been working together, neither canary would have left the barn alive. As it was, they were each working for themselves. Thus, as the two spotted Margalo's mother, heading outside to gather food, the cat got in the bird's way. Falcon sank his talons into the Angora cat, not deep enough to kill or even seriously hurt, as the strike had been meant to fell a bird, not a cat, but enough to give her yet another scar to match those she had obtained from jumping through a glass window. The Angora cat, for her part, angrily swatted the falcon, knocking him into the side of the barn.

Margalo's mother saw the two predators and promptly flew into the barn. "Run Margalo!" she cried. Her daughter couldn't yet fly. She had tried but was not, her mother deemed, ready yet to fly for more than lifting off the ground. Certainly not useful in a situation like this. Better to run on foot than expend valuable energy in a feeble attempt to stay airborne. Margalo ran for it. Her mother followed, planning to seize her daughter and take to the air. Hopefully the two of them could put enough distance between themselves and that falcon and cat. Margalo's mother would have reached her in time, had not the falcon sunk his talons into one of her wings. She fell out of the air, crashed into the Christmas tree, knocking the pin from the top, and landed on the ground, injured. The falcon moved to kill her, but he had to make a last second leap out of the way of the Angora cat, who herself lunged toward the bird, and he was sure she, after getting that nasty cut from him, wouldn't care if she killed him in the process. Becoming cat food was not befitting of his dignity. He flew off angrily, sure that the cat was going to get both the birds and that he'd have to go find something else to eat.

Margalo paused, staring at the Angora cat, who towered over her mother. Foolishly, she ran toward the predator, standing beside her injured mother. "Leave my mother alone, you foul fiend!" she shouted, heedless of her peril.

"Stupid little bird. You made my job too easy, coming to me. I was so looking forward to chasing you after I got your mother."

"Get away from my mother, you big bully!"

"So cute, but so stupid! Two bids in one go. Lucky me. I'd like to tell you this won't hurt much, but that would be lying. I like to play with my food before I eat it,” the Angora cat laughed devilishly. She moved to strike Margalo, to yank off one of her wings. However, before the cat could land a strike on her, she recoiled in pain. Margalo had seized the pin that had fallen from the Christmas tree and stabbed her with it. This attack caught the cat, how hadn’t been expecting it, off guard. Now there was a chance for Margalo to escape.

"Run Margalo! Run and don't look back!" Ava yelled.

Margalo didn't want to run, but she didn't want to be eaten either and her mother had ordered her to leave. And so, she ran, as fast as she could, away from the barn, away from certain death.

The cat pursued her. However, Ava moved in her way, pecking furiously at the cat. This forced her to turn her focus away from Margalo and fight her instead. She finally defeated the bird, stabbing one of her claws right through her. This did not immediately kill her, but took her out of the fight. "I'll be back to finish you, and you'll be sorry you interfered!" the cat snapped, before heading out of the barn. However, when she headed outside, she couldn't find Margalo. "She's gone!"

"I've-succeeded-then!" The cat turned to the see the canary, badly wounded ,glaring at her. She had been impaled right through the lung, her wound mortal. Still, despite being only able to speak in gasps, and knowing that her own death was near, she still had the same happy look on her face that she always wore.

"Succeeded at what?" the cat snorted. "You're going to die! How could you be happy?”

"A-monster-like-you-could-never-understand! You-won't-get-my-daughter. And-so-I-can-die-happy-knowing-that-she-will-be-free!" Though she struggled to talk with her injuries, Ava Canary still stood, as well as she could, firm, facing the Angora cat.

"Blablabla! Let's see how happy you are after I nibble off your little feet!" the Angora cat laughed disdainfully.

Ava still stood firm, despite the threat of torture. "You-will-meet-a-bad-end-in-the-end! Your-evil-will-come-b-b-b-ack-up-up-on-y-y-y-oourrr-h-h-hea-dddddd!" The canary gasped, finally succumbing to her injury and falling over dead.

The Angora cat shook her head. "I was hoping to have fun with you before I ate you. Oh well, can't have fun with them all. And you didn't save your daughter. She won't get far and I'll find her and have her for dessert. But first, dinner!" the Angora cat laughed, bending down to begin feasting.

Some distance from the barn Margalo had tripped on a stone and tumbled down an embankment toward the lake She was worried she was going to fall in, and she couldn't swim. However, she luckily fell into an abandoned animal burrow. She wondered why her mother hadn't come out of the barn like she had. What was keeping her?

Inside the barn, the Angora cat had finished eating the mother bird and was now looking for the child bird. "Where are you? Come out little one. You know I'm going to find you eventually."

Margalo decided that it was best to stay in her hiding spot. Hopefully, the cat wouldn't find her and would go away. She was certain she'd be spotted more easily in the open than where she was now. And, indeed, the cat was having trouble finding her. However, after two hours, much to her dismay, the cat was moving in her direction. "Aha, found you! Hiding in there! Clever! Too bad it didn't work!"

Margalo ran from her hiding spot, heading away from the cat. Soon, to her horror, she found her way barred by Lake Amston. She had nowhere to go, and she didn't know how to swim. The cat neared her, cornering her.

"Please don't eat me!"

"Orphaned birds like you will just die anyway. You might as well be my dessert as be an uneaten popsicle."

Margalo closed her eyes, certain she was about to die; she didn't want to watch. She thought it such a tragedy that her life, lasting only three years, was going to end with her being cat food. She hoped that the cat wouldn't "play" with her before eating her and that her death would be quick and relatively painless. She wondered what came after death; she figured she was soon to find out.

However, right before the cat could pounce on her, she felt herself being lifted into the air. Had the cat killed her and she was now being moved to heaven? If this was death, it hadn't hurt at all. However, since she didn't see any bright lights, or see her dead father or siblings, or anything she would expect from heaven, she began to wonder if she was still alive. She opened her eyes and saw that she was rising into the sky. The Angora cat looked up at her, enraged.

"Hey, that's mine!" the cat snapped from below her. Margalo looked down and saw the cat below her, looking angrily up at her. She was moving further away from her. That was good.

"Finders keepers, losers weepers!" Margalo looked up and saw, with shock and alarm, that a large bird, with a pointed beak and very sharp talons, had spoken. It was he that was carrying her.

"Who-who-who are you?" she asked trembling.

"My name's Horace Falcon, but you can call me Falcon."

"Falcon, you saved my life."

------
December 21ish, 2014:

Snowbell arrived at the Little house a few minutes after Stuart and Margalo had. He saw the mouse and canary by the cat flap, waiting for him. He knew that the mouse had to be peeved at what had happened. “Look, Stuart, I’m so sorry! It didn’t go as a I planned. But remember, she’s a cat. And cats—”

“This isn’t about her attempt on my life. That I can forgive. This is about something far more serious.”

“If you’re not mad about that Menika trying to kill you, what are you mad about?”

“What she did to Margalo’s mother.”

“Margalo’s mother? Margalo’s mother died years ago.”

“13 years ago. But Menika is 16, you said,” Margalo said.

“Yes. We both are.”

“Were you with her on December 25th, 2001?”

“Yes, Monty said that you and she went everywhere,” Stuart said.

“No, actually I wasn’t. I was captured and sent to the pound in mid-December of 2001. The day I was adopted was Christmas Day, 2001.”

“Menika likes to travel, doesn’t she?” Stuart asked.

“Yes, she has traveled from time to time, as I’ve told you.”

“Well, I think she paid a stop at Hebron, Connecticut on Christmas Day, 13 years ago, and she ate Margalo’s mother.”

“Ate her?” the cat asked, raising his eyebrows in alarm.

“Yes. She orphaned Margalo.”

“Look, Stuart, I don’t know if what you two believe is true or not, but even if it is, well, I hate to break this to you, but cats eat birds. I ate several in my youth.”

“Wouldn’t hurt a fly, huh, Stuart?” Margalo snarled at the mouse.

“I didn’t know at the time I told you that,” the mouse said nervously.

“I could even come to forgive that, if that’s all she did,” Margalo said, “but it’s way worse than that. She said that she liked to ‘play’ with her food before eating it. She was going to torture me but I got away. My mother wasn’t so lucky. She, no doubt, died a terrible death at the paws of that wicked cat! I felt so guilty for leaving my mother behind to die like that. Falcon picked up on my guilt and made me feel so bad for leaving her. My guilt was one of the reasons I stayed his slave for nearly 10 years. I didn’t think I was worth anything.”

“Look, I’m sure you’re mistaking Menika for some other Angora cat. Menika was always kind to me. She helped me stay alive when I’d given up hope after my father’s death. She’s not a sadistic monster.”

“Go ask her yourself then, if she was in Hebron on Christmas Day, 2001, and what she did then!” Stuart demanded.

“Ok fine. I will.

And I’ll come back and tell you how wrong you both are!”

.......

“So, what did you find?” Stuart asked.
“She says she did eat a canary in Hebron that day. A female.”
“I knew it!” Margalo shrieked.
“But she never said anything about torture. She just said that the bird died from an injury in a fight with her.”
Margalo wanted to believe him, that her mother didn’t suffer that fateful day, and was already gone before Menika had started to eat her. Still, she didn’t think she could trust that cat. “I heard her say she was going to torture me, and I was just a young child. She certainly wouldn’t hesitate to torture my mother to death! Menika’s a sociopath!”
“Menika is not a sociopath!”
“Snowbell, I found some evidence in her lair that backs Margalo’s claims. There were half-eaten corpses of squirrels, rabbits, and mice in there. I don’t think Menika kills for just food. She’s a bad influence for you, as I told you several days ago.”
“Stuart, I think we should just let the past be the past. Right now, I want to think about my future. You have the power to talk to the Littles. You can convince them to not sell my and Menika’s kittens when she moves in.”
“I thought she didn’t like humans.”
“I can persuade her. She was afraid they’d sell them. If you can convince, then she’ll come here, and I can be happy.”
“I thought you already were happy here, Snowbell.”
“Well, I still have this empty space in my life. And Menika can fill it. Please, Stuart!”
“Well, maybe, er, but, I don’t know. I’d need to think,” Stuart stuttered, his heart torn.
“If she moves in, I’ll move out and I’ll never come back!” Margalo vowed to Stuart.
Stuart’s heart was really torn. He wanted Snowbell to be happy. Yet, he didn’t think he could bear a life without Margalo. “I’m sorry Snowbell, but the answer is no!”
“No? After all we’ve been through, and you’re like ‘No!’! So, that’s how it’s going to be?”
“Snowbell, I don’t think Menika can change. And I don’t want to lose Margalo.”
“So, you can be happy, but I can’t? Is that it!” The cat’s fur began to stand on end and he began to hiss angrily. It wasn’t like the pathetic hissing that he’d done at Margalo several years earlier, but the real thing. Both Stuart and Margalo backed away in alarm.
“Are you threatening me, Snowbell?” Stuart asked, trying to keep his temper in check. He felt sorry for that cat, but he really hated being put into such a position, and with Margalo’s ultimatum, he was stuck. Did the cat not get that?
“I’m starting to regret saving you in the park those years ago. A lot of good you’ve done me!”
“How dare you say that to Stuart! He saved you from Beast!” Margalo snapped.
“I’m starting to wish she’d eaten me! Then my heart wouldn’t be so broken!”
“I think it’s best if we leave him alone, Margalo,” Stuart said, trying not to provoke the cat anymore.
“That’s right, get your sorry fannies out of my sight!”
Stuart sighed deeply. “I’m only trying to do what I feel is best.”
“Best for whom? Me or you and that stupid canary?”
“Stupid canary?” Margalo seethed.
“Come on, Margalo, let’s go! He needs some time alone!”
“That’s right, get out of here! I wish you’d never come to this house!” Snowbell snapped as Stuart and Margalo left the room.
“Stuart, I’m sorry about all of that, but I just can’t bear to be in the same house as Menika. Some wounds run too deep,” Margalo said sadly.
“I understand,” the mouse said. And without another word, he ran into his bedroom. Margalo, concerned, followed him. She peered into the room and saw him on his bed, crying. Her heart ached!

Description
Stuart Little, in Finding Margalo, crying on his bed. Snowbell wants his longtime girlfriend, Menika Angora, to move in so that they can finally start a family. However, 13 years earlier, Menika killed Margalo's mother, and Margalo has stated that if Menika moves in, she will move out and won't come back. He's in love with Margalo, and has plans for the future with her. On the other paw, he's good friends with, and sort of family, of, Snowbell, but, alas, he can't please them both.

December 25, 2001:

One fateful Christmas Day, as the young Margalo and her mother were going about their day as normal, two predators lurked near the barn. Both had been stealthily watching the mother bird and figured that, if the mother kept coming back there repeatedly, that there had to be a nest there. One of them was a female Angora cat. The other was a male peregrine falcon. Both of them knew that the mother would be the harder to catch, being the better flier. Still, they both knew that the mother would be desperate to save her children, rather than saving herself, and thus could be easily defeated. The two assumed that after they got her, that the children would be a cinch.

The two birds, unaware of their peril, set about decorating a Christmas tree, a small pine tree that grew in the barn. They didn't have ornaments so had put pine sliced pine cones, which holes poked through the middle with the talons, and straw used to string these pinecone ornaments onto the tree. Margalo's mother put her jeweled pin on the top of the tree as a sort of star.

Outside the barn, both the Angora cat and the falcon moved in for the kill. Had the two been working together, neither canary would have left the barn alive. As it was, they were each working for themselves. Thus, as the two spotted Margalo's mother, heading outside to gather food, the cat got in the bird's way. Falcon sank his talons into the Angora cat, not deep enough to kill or even seriously hurt, as the strike had been meant to fell a bird, not a cat, but enough to give her yet another scar to match those she had obtained from jumping through a glass window. The Angora cat, for her part, angrily swatted the falcon, knocking him into the side of the barn.

Margalo's mother saw the two predators and promptly flew into the barn. "Run Margalo!" she cried. Her daughter couldn't yet fly. She had tried but was not, her mother deemed, ready yet to fly for more than lifting off the ground. Certainly not useful in a situation like this. Better to run on foot than expend valuable energy in a feeble attempt to stay airborne. Margalo ran for it. Her mother followed, planning to seize her daughter and take to the air. Hopefully the two of them could put enough distance between themselves and that falcon and cat. Margalo's mother would have reached her in time, had not the falcon sunk his talons into one of her wings. She fell out of the air, crashed into the Christmas tree, knocking the pin from the top, and landed on the ground, injured. The falcon moved to kill her, but he had to make a last second leap out of the way of the Angora cat, who herself lunged toward the bird, and he was sure she, after getting that nasty cut from him, wouldn't care if she killed him in the process. Becoming cat food was not befitting of his dignity. He flew off angrily, sure that the cat was going to get both the birds and that he'd have to go find something else to eat.

Margalo paused, staring at the Angora cat, who towered over her mother. Foolishly, she ran toward the predator, standing beside her injured mother. "Leave my mother alone, you foul fiend!" she shouted, heedless of her peril.

"Stupid little bird. You made my job too easy, coming to me. I was so looking forward to chasing you after I got your mother."

"Get away from my mother, you big bully!"

"So cute, but so stupid! Two bids in one go. Lucky me. I'd like to tell you this won't hurt much, but that would be lying. I like to play with my food before I eat it,” the Angora cat laughed devilishly. She moved to strike Margalo, to yank off one of her wings. However, before the cat could land a strike on her, she recoiled in pain. Margalo had seized the pin that had fallen from the Christmas tree and stabbed her with it. This attack caught the cat, how hadn’t been expecting it, off guard. Now there was a chance for Margalo to escape.

"Run Margalo! Run and don't look back!" Ava yelled.

Margalo didn't want to run, but she didn't want to be eaten either and her mother had ordered her to leave. And so, she ran, as fast as she could, away from the barn, away from certain death.

The cat pursued her. However, Ava moved in her way, pecking furiously at the cat. This forced her to turn her focus away from Margalo and fight her instead. She finally defeated the bird, stabbing one of her claws right through her. This did not immediately kill her, but took her out of the fight. "I'll be back to finish you, and you'll be sorry you interfered!" the cat snapped, before heading out of the barn. However, when she headed outside, she couldn't find Margalo. "She's gone!"

"I've-succeeded-then!" The cat turned to the see the canary, badly wounded ,glaring at her. She had been impaled right through the lung, her wound mortal. Still, despite being only able to speak in gasps, and knowing that her own death was near, she still had the same happy look on her face that she always wore.

"Succeeded at what?" the cat snorted. "You're going to die! How could you be happy?”

"A-monster-like-you-could-never-understand! You-won't-get-my-daughter. And-so-I-can-die-happy-knowing-that-she-will-be-free!" Though she struggled to talk with her injuries, Ava Canary still stood, as well as she could, firm, facing the Angora cat.

"Blablabla! Let's see how happy you are after I nibble off your little feet!" the Angora cat laughed disdainfully.

Ava still stood firm, despite the threat of torture. "You-will-meet-a-bad-end-in-the-end! Your-evil-will-come-b-b-b-ack-up-up-on-y-y-y-oourrr-h-h-hea-dddddd!" The canary gasped, finally succumbing to her injury and falling over dead.

The Angora cat shook her head. "I was hoping to have fun with you before I ate you. Oh well, can't have fun with them all. And you didn't save your daughter. She won't get far and I'll find her and have her for dessert. But first, dinner!" the Angora cat laughed, bending down to begin feasting.

Some distance from the barn Margalo had tripped on a stone and tumbled down an embankment toward the lake She was worried she was going to fall in, and she couldn't swim. However, she luckily fell into an abandoned animal burrow. She wondered why her mother hadn't come out of the barn like she had. What was keeping her?

Inside the barn, the Angora cat had finished eating the mother bird and was now looking for the child bird. "Where are you? Come out little one. You know I'm going to find you eventually."

Margalo decided that it was best to stay in her hiding spot. Hopefully, the cat wouldn't find her and would go away. She was certain she'd be spotted more easily in the open than where she was now. And, indeed, the cat was having trouble finding her. However, after two hours, much to her dismay, the cat was moving in her direction. "Aha, found you! Hiding in there! Clever! Too bad it didn't work!"

Margalo ran from her hiding spot, heading away from the cat. Soon, to her horror, she found her way barred by Lake Amston. She had nowhere to go, and she didn't know how to swim. The cat neared her, cornering her.

"Please don't eat me!"

"Orphaned birds like you will just die anyway. You might as well be my dessert as be an uneaten popsicle."

Margalo closed her eyes, certain she was about to die; she didn't want to watch. She thought it such a tragedy that her life, lasting only three years, was going to end with her being cat food. She hoped that the cat wouldn't "play" with her before eating her and that her death would be quick and relatively painless. She wondered what came after death; she figured she was soon to find out.

However, right before the cat could pounce on her, she felt herself being lifted into the air. Had the cat killed her and she was now being moved to heaven? If this was death, it hadn't hurt at all. However, since she didn't see any bright lights, or see her dead father or siblings, or anything she would expect from heaven, she began to wonder if she was still alive. She opened her eyes and saw that she was rising into the sky. The Angora cat looked up at her, enraged.

"Hey, that's mine!" the cat snapped from below her. Margalo looked down and saw the cat below her, looking angrily up at her. She was moving further away from her. That was good.

"Finders keepers, losers weepers!" Margalo looked up and saw, with shock and alarm, that a large bird, with a pointed beak and very sharp talons, had spoken. It was he that was carrying her.

"Who-who-who are you?" she asked trembling.

"My name's Horace Falcon, but you can call me Falcon."

"Falcon, you saved my life."

------
December 21ish, 2014:

Snowbell arrived at the Little house a few minutes after Stuart and Margalo had. He saw the mouse and canary by the cat flap, waiting for him. He knew that the mouse had to be peeved at what had happened. “Look, Stuart, I’m so sorry! It didn’t go as a I planned. But remember, she’s a cat. And cats—”

“This isn’t about her attempt on my life. That I can forgive. This is about something far more serious.”

“If you’re not mad about that Menika trying to kill you, what are you mad about?”

“What she did to Margalo’s mother.”

“Margalo’s mother? Margalo’s mother died years ago.”

“13 years ago. But Menika is 16, you said,” Margalo said.

“Yes. We both are.”

“Were you with her on December 25th, 2001?”

“Yes, Monty said that you and she went everywhere,” Stuart said.

“No, actually I wasn’t. I was captured and sent to the pound in mid-December of 2001. The day I was adopted was Christmas Day, 2001.”

“Menika likes to travel, doesn’t she?” Stuart asked.

“Yes, she has traveled from time to time, as I’ve told you.”

“Well, I think she paid a stop at Hebron, Connecticut on Christmas Day, 13 years ago, and she ate Margalo’s mother.”

“Ate her?” the cat asked, raising his eyebrows in alarm.

“Yes. She orphaned Margalo.”

“Look, Stuart, I don’t know if what you two believe is true or not, but even if it is, well, I hate to break this to you, but cats eat birds. I ate several in my youth.”

“Wouldn’t hurt a fly, huh, Stuart?” Margalo snarled at the mouse.

“I didn’t know at the time I told you that,” the mouse said nervously.

“I could even come to forgive that, if that’s all she did,” Margalo said, “but it’s way worse than that. She said that she liked to ‘play’ with her food before eating it. She was going to torture me but I got away. My mother wasn’t so lucky. She, no doubt, died a terrible death at the paws of that wicked cat! I felt so guilty for leaving my mother behind to die like that. Falcon picked up on my guilt and made me feel so bad for leaving her. My guilt was one of the reasons I stayed his slave for nearly 10 years. I didn’t think I was worth anything.”

“Look, I’m sure you’re mistaking Menika for some other Angora cat. Menika was always kind to me. She helped me stay alive when I’d given up hope after my father’s death. She’s not a sadistic monster.”

“Go ask her yourself then, if she was in Hebron on Christmas Day, 2001, and what she did then!” Stuart demanded.

“Ok fine. I will.

And I’ll come back and tell you how wrong you both are!”

.......

“So, what did you find?” Stuart asked.
“She says she did eat a canary in Hebron that day. A female.”
“I knew it!” Margalo shrieked.
“But she never said anything about torture. She just said that the bird died from an injury in a fight with her.”
Margalo wanted to believe him, that her mother didn’t suffer that fateful day, and was already gone before Menika had started to eat her. Still, she didn’t think she could trust that cat. “I heard her say she was going to torture me, and I was just a young child. She certainly wouldn’t hesitate to torture my mother to death! Menika’s a sociopath!”
“Menika is not a sociopath!”
“Snowbell, I found some evidence in her lair that backs Margalo’s claims. There were half-eaten corpses of squirrels, rabbits, and mice in there. I don’t think Menika kills for just food. She’s a bad influence for you, as I told you several days ago.”
“Stuart, I think we should just let the past be the past. Right now, I want to think about my future. You have the power to talk to the Littles. You can convince them to not sell my and Menika’s kittens when she moves in.”
“I thought she didn’t like humans.”
“I can persuade her. She was afraid they’d sell them. If you can convince, then she’ll come here, and I can be happy.”
“I thought you already were happy here, Snowbell.”
“Well, I still have this empty space in my life. And Menika can fill it. Please, Stuart!”
“Well, maybe, er, but, I don’t know. I’d need to think,” Stuart stuttered, his heart torn.
“If she moves in, I’ll move out and I’ll never come back!” Margalo vowed to Stuart.
Stuart’s heart was really torn. He wanted Snowbell to be happy. Yet, he didn’t think he could bear a life without Margalo. “I’m sorry Snowbell, but the answer is no!”
“No? After all we’ve been through, and you’re like ‘No!’! So, that’s how it’s going to be?”
“Snowbell, I don’t think Menika can change. And I don’t want to lose Margalo.”
“So, you can be happy, but I can’t? Is that it!” The cat’s fur began to stand on end and he began to hiss angrily. It wasn’t like the pathetic hissing that he’d done at Margalo several years earlier, but the real thing. Both Stuart and Margalo backed away in alarm.
“Are you threatening me, Snowbell?” Stuart asked, trying to keep his temper in check. He felt sorry for that cat, but he really hated being put into such a position, and with Margalo’s ultimatum, he was stuck. Did the cat not get that?
“I’m starting to regret saving you in the park those years ago. A lot of good you’ve done me!”
“How dare you say that to Stuart! He saved you from Beast!” Margalo snapped.
“I’m starting to wish she’d eaten me! Then my heart wouldn’t be so broken!”
“I think it’s best if we leave him alone, Margalo,” Stuart said, trying not to provoke the cat anymore.
“That’s right, get your sorry fannies out of my sight!”
Stuart sighed deeply. “I’m only trying to do what I feel is best.”
“Best for whom? Me or you and that stupid canary?”
“Stupid canary?” Margalo seethed.
“Come on, Margalo, let’s go! He needs some time alone!”
“That’s right, get out of here! I wish you’d never come to this house!” Snowbell snapped as Stuart and Margalo left the room.
“Stuart, I’m sorry about all of that, but I just can’t bear to be in the same house as Menika. Some wounds run too deep,” Margalo said sadly.
“I understand,” the mouse said. And without another word, he ran into his bedroom. Margalo, concerned, followed him. She peered into the room and saw him on his bed, crying. Her heart ached!